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“I firmly believe that new black pavement is one of the most positive things that a municipality can do to present itself, both to residents and visitors,” said Welland Mayor Barry Sharpe.

“It’s kind of the municipal equivalent of a fresh coat of paint in your house, or the way your home looks when you’ve just cut the lawn on a Sunday afternoon.”

With that in mind, Welland will be a very welcoming place by the time this summer is over.

The Niagara Region is scheduled to widen Woodlawn Rd. in front of the Niagara College campus, repaving the north end of Niagara St., as well as adding a new surface to part of Prince Charles Dr.

“When that’s all repaved at the end of this construction season, you’re going to see people more positive, more visitors stopping somewhere and saying, ‘This looks like a really nice city,’” Sharpe said. “It’s just because that street is no longer one of the worst in Niagara because it hasn’t been maintained and its potholes have been patched. It really makes a difference when we get new asphalt down.”

Meanwhile, another stretch of black asphalt being planned for the city this summer will give Welland bragging rights as the first city in the province to have a roundabout at the end of a 400-series highway.

As part of the Ministry of Transportation project to widen Hwy. 406 to four lanes, a roundabout is being added to the intersection of the highway and East Main St.

Sharpe said there is a roundabout on Hwy. 33 in Picton. That roundabout was the first to be added to a provincial highway. But Hwy. 33 is an undivided highway.

“We’ll be the first one with a roundabout on a 400-series highway in the province,” Sharpe said.

And it’s another project Sharpe is looking forward to seeing completed this year.

Work on the roundabout is expected to begin within the next few weeks, “weather permitting,” said MTO spokesperson Astrid Poei.

“It will hopefully be completed by fall 2012. But that’s again pending weather and construction progress,” she added.

Poei said the MTO will launch an educational campaign about using the new roundabout just prior to the completion of its construction.

Sharpe called the roundabout a safer alternative to installing traffic signals at the end of a four-lane divided highway.

“In areas where roundabouts are in use in Ontario, like Waterloo and Hamilton ... they cite dramatic improvements in reducing crash frequency and few pedestrian/vehicle accidents,” he said.

The roundabout will also reduce delays because traffic lights will not be required.

“That’s part of the reason we want the four-lane highway. It increases capacity to move traffic through and that’s important as we continue to push forward to get the east-west arterial connection off Hwy. 140 down to Fort Erie and the QEW,” he added.

The roundabout will also allow the city to create a gateway in the centre island, welcoming travellers to the city.

“It gives you the opportunity to create a gateway and improves the esthetics at the intersection,” he said, adding the city’s arts andculture committee has expressed an interest in being involved in designing a gateway feature for the roundabout.

While the construction of the roundabout is underway this summer, the city will be working on an infrastructure project along East Main St.,not far from the site roundabout construction project.

Pending city council approval of the contract, construction is tentatively scheduled to start by May 7 on a $1.5-million watermain replacement and sewer abandonment project on East Main St., between Ross St. and Golden Blvd.

While it will mean another disruption for travellers this summer, Sharpe said it’s preferable to starting another construction project on the heels of the last one.

“You can’t come back a year later and say, ‘OK, now we have to dig it up again to do the sewers,’” he explained.

Poei said other aspects of the highway widening project are “progressing well,” including work to building embankments for Merritt Rd and Trillium Railroad lines in the area.

Meanwhile, the bed is being created for the new northbound lanes of the highway between Merritt and Port Robinson Rds. “There are grading and earth movement operations that will continue throughout the 2012 construction season.”

Poei said the entire project is slated for completion in the late fall of 2014.

In the meantime, Poei said the MTO is not anticipating any major impact on traffic as a result of the ongoing construction project.

She said the work should not result in any significant lane closures, “only because of the way that the project is staged.”

“We are well aware of the traffic concerns,” she added.

At more than $100-million, the highway widening project, which includes bridges over the recreational canal and Welland River, overpasses as well as the roundabout, “is one of the larger investments” the MTO has undertaken in the past several years.

It’s part of a $2.5-billion commitment from the provincial government to expand roads, highways and bridges across Ontario.

Poei said it’s comparable in scope to the recent work done expanding the QEW in St. Catharines.

“The government of Ontario understands that the Hwy. 406 is vital to the economic growth of the Niagara Region,” she said, adding it’s has led to the creation of more than 1,000 jobs.